“Janet!” I whisper-hissed again, willing her to stop speaking.
“The reason our very own Emmerson Wallace got into that bidding war was because she’s engaged to her longtime best friend, Landon Lewis!”
And just like that…time stopped.
The floor I stood on felt like it had been ripped out from under me. I swayed and would have fallen over if not for Landon’s strong arms grabbing hold of me. I followed his gaze to the table where our parents were sitting, and we both let out a groan at the same time. They were all staring at us with shocked expressions on their faces.
“You’re engaged! Oh my goodness, this is amazing,” I heard someone in the crowd say. I honestly didn’t want to see who it was. “I can’t wait to see you Instagram this journey.”
“Oh yes! Please say you’re going to share every part of your wedding with us!” another female voice said.
I met Hailey’s gaze, but instead of smirking, she gave me a sympathetic look.
Closing my eyes, I internally let out a string of curse words.
“Should we have the happy couple come up onto the stage, y’all?” I heard Janet ask.
My eyes snapped open, and I looked at Landon. With a pleading expression, I silently asked my best-friend-now-faux-fiancé what in the hell we were going to do.
That carefree, easygoing smile suddenly appeared on his face as he moved his gaze from me to the rest of the room. “Smile, Emme.”
“Smile?” I asked in a weak voice.
He nodded and took my hand in his. “You can’t go out there onto the stage looking like you’re about to throw up.”
“The…the…stage? Landon, are you insane?”
Suddenly, Landon was guiding us out onto the stage, where we stood next to a beaming Janet.
“When were you going to tell us, you brat!” Janet asked me.
When I didn’t answer, Landon did. “Well, I asked her tonight, on the way here, so you can understand why we wanted to keep this to ourselves for a bit.”
I snapped my head to look at him so fast that I got dizzy. What was he doing? He’d taken the shovel from Lillian and had just thrown the first bit of dirt on us.
It was then I noticed all the flashes and that they weren’t coming from phones—they were cameras. Oh holy hell. I had forgotten there were reporters and news crews here. It was, after all, a huge social event in Austin that was held each year.
“Oh my God,” I whispered as I tried to stand behind Landon.
Janet handed the microphone to me, and I shook my head like a wild, trapped animal.
Thankfully, Landon took it, wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me next to him. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was worried I would run for my life, or if it was all for the show he was clearly putting on. My entire body shook.
Landon looked down at me, his eyes imploring me to act normal. “Well, looks like the cat is out of the bag, sweetheart.”
The entire ballroom erupted into laughter, and I forced myself to smile. Landon was playing along to keep me from looking like a fool…and worse yet…a liar.
“When’s the big date?” someone called out.
I jerked my head over to look at my parents. Daddy looked confused, and my mother had a goofy smile on her face. Surely she knew this wasn’t real. Then I remembered the stunt Landon had pulled at dinner to get Claire off his tracks. He’d held my hand. Kissed the back of it.
I swallowed hard and then looked up at Landon. He wasn’t going to answer. He was waiting for me to say something.
Crap. He wanted me to give them a date.
Forcing myself to smile brighter, I cleared my throat and took the mic. “Well, I’ve always wanted a winter wedding. I’m thinking December. That gives us six months to plan things.” And six months to come up with a reason why there would never be a wedding between me and Landon.
A plethora of sighs and gasps filled the room.
“Before you ask any more questions, we should probably give them some time to digest their engagement, with it being so fresh and new. I do think that they should start off the dancing, though, what do y’all say?” Janet asked as she motioned for us to head to the dance floor.
A rush of applause filled the room, and Landon leaned down and kissed me on the cheek and whispered, “Shall we?”
Okay, looked like Landon was officially on board with my little white lie.
Landon held onto my hand as I lifted my dress to walk down the steps of the stage. Hailey stood there with a bemused Mike behind her. No one else could see it, but Landon shot Mike the middle finger in a covert way, which caused Mike to laugh and Hailey to cover her mouth in a sad attempt not to laugh.
As we walked over to the dance floor, I tried not to look like I was freaking the hell out, which was kind of hard to do because I was most certainly freaking the hell out.
Landon pulled me into his arms and a song began to play. We were the only two on the dance floor, and I could feel every eye in the room on us.
Looking up at him with a smile, I started to speak, but he beat me to it.
“What in the hell was that all about, Emme?” he asked with a charming smile and nothing but anger in his voice.
“I don’t know what came over me, Landon. I’m so sorry!”
His smile faltered slightly as he looked at someone over my shoulder. “I know what came over you. Jealousy that your ex is getting married.”
The absurd statement made me stumble, but Landon was right there, and he covered it up so effortlessly, you’d think it was on purpose. He pulled me closer to his body, and for a moment, I forgot what we were even talking about. Oh, that’s right. Jealousy.
“I’m not jealous. I don’t even care that Jason’s getting married!” I whisper-shouted. It was harder to do that when you had to keep a smile on your face and all you wanted to do was scream.
Landon’s smile faded, and he rolled his eyes.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Not jealous, my ass. If you weren’t bothered that he was getting married, you wouldn’t have popped off with the ridiculous lie in the first place.”
I tried to ignore the way those words felt like they ripped at my heart. “It’s not like that at all, Landon. I don’t have any feelings for him anymore. None. He made me mad. He said I wasn’t capable of being in love. That’s why I said that.”
Landon spun us around as he let out a bark of laughter. He didn’t seem convinced as his eyes looked back at someone.
“Who do you keep looking at?” I asked, feeling real jealousy once again.
“Your ex. He keeps staring at us.”
I exhaled. “I don’t care about him. Landon, what are we going to do now?”
“Nothing.”
I widened my eyes as I laughed. “Nothing? The entire ballroom full of people thinks we’re engaged, including our parents.”
He let out a humorless laugh. “Trust me, our parents do not think we’re engaged.”
“Well, you didn’t see the look on my father’s face then.”
His eyes went back to the same spot, and this time I looked to confirm it was Jason he was glaring at.
“For fuck’s sake, Landon. I do not have feelings for him. Why can’t you believe me? It was a stupid, crazy thing to do, but I’m tired of everyone else getting…” My voice trailed off as I saw the way Landon was looking at me.